-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [see http://www.poptel.org.uk/labour-party/policy/info-highway/content.html for full text]
It is important that privacy is rigorously protected over the new networks, for both personal and commercial reasons. We do not accept the "clipper chip" argument developed in the United States for the authorities to be able to swoop down on any encrypted message at will and unscramble it.
The only power we would wish to give to the authorities, in order to pursue a defined legitimate anti-criminal purpose, would be to enable decryption to be demanded under judicial warrant (in the same way that a warrant is required in order to search someone's home).
Attempts to control the use of encryption technology are wrong in principle, unworkable in practice, and damaging to the long-term economic value of the information networks. There is no fundamental difference between an encrypted file and a locked safe. A safe may be effectively impregnable in that the effort taken to open it would destroy the contents. An encryption algorithm, similarly, may be effectively unbreakable.
Notes. I've taken this entirely out of context*; cpunks will be glad to find that the same document manages to hit at least two of the horsemen of the infocalypse. A few paragraphs earlier is the standard "must protect women, children, and ethnic minorities" (paraphrased) argument. Labour seems likely to form the next government. And even if they don't, their stated policy might be a good thing to take to the Tories, saying something along the lines of, "Labour has a clue, where's yours?" [Note that I was unable to find the Tory point of view.] I found this stuff from Anne Campbell MP's home page. http://www.worldserver.pipex.com/home/anne.campbell * for brevity's sake. richard Richard Martin I DON'T SPEAK FOR ALIAS|WAVEFRONT Alias|Wavefront - Toronto Office [Co-op Software Developer, Games Team] rmartin@aw.sgi.com/g4frodo@cdf.toronto.edu http://www.io.org/~samwise Trinity College UofT ChemPhysCompSci 9T7+PEY=9T8 Shad Valley Waterloo 1992 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBML5COB1gtCYLvIJ1AQFZ1wP+Ox2fbOKsEbtl06GZugpB8ecHl5cGYHSQ 7sBro0QFr2v4KZOV6X435LXmAqSV8ML+BmVsT/1bnfUzsxeIQErhC0q1kQeA+hAX h21SYfW6hN3h2L9aOtLr/1FDZkKAcXGDNFkvq/weKQdxCbtTw0Nl1ZQym3oaYdhT MrjKi85fU44= =CeYH -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----